Artists People Should Know—Chuck Close

One extraordinary artist that people may or may not know about is Chuck Close or Charles Thomas Close. Chuck is an American painter and photographer born on July 5,1940 in Monroe, Washington. Chuck began his photorealistic or super realist style of painting career in the late 1960s. by the 1970s Close became one of the best contemporary American artists and had his work presented in galleries across the world.

However, he is not like other artists. Chuck’s spinal artery was paralyzed in 1988. He also suffers from prosopagnosia or face blindness. Although Close isn’t unable to control certain parts of his body and can’t recognizes faces, he finds ways to paint. For example, the picture above is a self portrait of Chuck Close. He made this portrait through the use of photography, the grid method, a paint brush that’s attached to his wrist, and a large canvas that was moved by a machine. Although Close is limited to doing certain things he’s still able to get things done.

I personally think that Close is very important since he is a living representation of how a person shouldn’t be hindered by a problem, but be inspired to do the best they can instead. If I could ask Chuck anything, it would be who or what inspired him to start painting and pursue a career in this field.